


CafSpill: love is a rainbow palette

by okaypianist



Series: Inspired by Twitter Prompts [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beautubers, Ben Solo has good hair, BennyMUA, Bisexual Ben Solo, CafSpill like TeaSpill but StarWars hahaha get it, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Crack is my brand now, F/M, Fluff, Fluffy like this powder brush so use my code for ten percent off, Makeup, Raw Beauty Rey, Social Media, Wedge is Rouge Leader and yes I mean Rouge and not Rogue, YouTube, men in makeup, slide into my DMs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-05-02 03:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19190908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okaypianist/pseuds/okaypianist
Summary: "Um, hi, hello there. This is Rey Niima of Raw Beauty Rey."Rey is a Youtuber and Ben is a Beautuber! Will there be snark? Will there be fluff? Will there be loving jokes at the Youtube beauty community's expense? Will there be chapter titles named after products?Yes.





	1. Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen

Raw Beauty Rey's latest video starts with a muscular female arm adjusting a slightly out-of-focus camera (which does not ever truly focus) and then being put into a lap.

Rey Niima, 19, is sitting on the floor of a standard American shitty starter apartment, complete with stiff and ostensibly beige carpeting, leaning against a couch that has clearly seen better decades, and holding a bottle of Supergoop! in her non-camera-adjusting hand.

"Um, hi, hello there. This is Rey Niima of Raw Beauty Rey. I usually speak to you about inner beauty, or saberstaff training, or other things to maintain your mind and body. Today, though, I want to come at this a little differently, and speak on outer beauty as well.

I know my loyal fans, my Reybies, hey guys and gals and non-binary pals!, have been on Freckle Alert this summer. I do tan and freckle naturally in the sun, but I was recently introduced to the most amazing product idea: sunscreen!"

Rey awkwardly waves the bottle a few times, and turns it in her palm so the product can be seen a little more clearly from the camera.

"This video is in collaboration with Supergoop! Thank you, sponsors. I said yes for three reasons, you know I keep it real and transparent with you, Reybies. Sure, okay, I like to make the cash and put it into the Arm Wrap Fund, or the Buying Friends Presents Fund, or the Sugary Glittery Caf fund. But secondly I do actually quite like their message. Wear sunscreen! Protect your skin! Be healthy and all. I hear it's a nice base under makeup, but I don't really wear any cause I'm quite a sweaty gal, but just so you know. Here, let me read you the label."

Ben Solo pauses the video at this point and speaks to his roommate, Hux, who is watching Ben watch this video with mild amusement.

Ben says, "What?!?!? Look at that, Hugs. Can you believe it?"

Hux snorts in derision and replies in a flat tone, "No. Wow. Scandalous. Tell me more."

"She's READING the PACKAGE word for WORD? Does she think her audience are IDIOTS? They can DO that for themSELVES. Why would any brand sponsor this dirty hippie, anyway, Hugsy?"

"Awww," Hux simpers. "Benny has a crushie."

"Don't CALL me that unless we're on camera, Hugsy boy. I have to TWEET about this. Help me write something shady."

"Now that is a good reason why I'm on your payroll," Hux admits.

 

Several hours later, Ben hits resume on the video. Rey reveals that the third reason she did this collab is because Supergoop! sounds like an excellent superhero name. She giggles, then rambles about dirt facials or something equally ridiculous, and finally blows a kiss to the camera. Ben turns off the video, completes his 11-step nighttime beauty routine, and vaguely wishes that kiss had been blown at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... wear sunscreen y'all? (hides)


	2. Dior Addict Lip Glow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben sits on his white leather sofa in front of a sparkly backdrop, winks at the camera and does his usual intro:
> 
> "Hey, what's up you guys? My name is Benny em-you-ay if you're new here, if you're not then welcome back, and it's time to get glam, fam!"

A glittery video introduction plays, with peppy royalty-free music, showing filtered shots of a white-with-silver-accents beauty room, two rather fluffy cats, and a dark-haired man whose black wearing-his-own-merch t-shirt introduces him as BennyMUA. This is the start of BennyMUA's latest upload, and indeed every upload of his in the last few months.

Benny, or Ben to his three friends (or Benjamin if it's a spam call or if his mother is peeved at him), is twenty-nine. He lives in a better California condo than you'd expect for a Beautuber, thanks to his family money and his willingness to have a roommate.

Ben sits on his white leather sofa in front of a sparkly backdrop, winks at the camera and does his usual intro without having to blink a double-false-lash-covered eye:

"Hey, what's up you guys? My name is Benny em-you-ay if you're new here, if you're not then welcome back, and it's time to get glam, fam!"

Ben is filming a Tried and True Tag, where he will display all of his "trusty dusty" items, many of which are listed in the description bar below with affiliate links. Still, his good review can't be bought: his eye for classy packaging, his nose for anything too artificially-chemically-smelling, and his overall snobbery keep him looking for the best of everything.

"The Dior Addict Lip Glows literally changed my life. I know, you're all thinking, one, will he stop talking about this, and two, do I really needta pay that much for a lip balm? Number one, no, _j'adore Dior_ , we totally stan. Number two, yes, if you've got a spare $34, you do in fact need this sheer yet beautiful, moisturizing wash of color. The component is so heavy and satisfying... like, it almost looks big in MY hand."

Ben holds up one of the five Dior balms he owns, and it may be a bit heavier than a MAC bullet, but it looks tiny in his giant, perfectly manicured hand. He swipes it across the back of his broad palm, unaware of just how many people of all genders would rather lick his wrist than try his favorite lip product.

After he finishes filming and has set Hux to the task of doing the first edit (Ben always does the last pass), Ben skims a few of the thousands of unread emails in his inbox. One catches his eye, and after reading it, he does something he rarely ever does: DMs a complete stranger. He's writing Rey Niima, the "dirty hippie" sunscreen girl, and she would be the perfect partner for this project.

DM:

**Hello, Miss Niima. I'm BennyMUA (yes, it's really me, come back when you're done flipping out). I got a really interesting offer from a brand and I think we could work well together. Please message me at your earliest convenience. Also, it's makeup related (perfect, right? You do need a teacher).**

**Cordially,**

**BS**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do own a Lip Glow. It's bougie chapstick but also it changed my life a little bit. Don't @ me, I already @ed myself.


	3. Stila Eyes Are The Window

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benny is wearing Gucci sweats and a nearly-bare face- though the microblading on his brows looks pretty recent- and he is ranting about how rude Raw Beauty Rey's "team" was when responding to his "generous" offer.

The mysterious YouTuber known only as CafSpill is recording their latest video. As always, they're in a room they booked at the local shared creator space downtown, which is a sentence that didn't make sense ten years ago.

CafSpill crafts stories of drama and intrigue using only other people's video clips, subtitles and intertitles, and a little bit of narration. They have never allowed their face to be seen on camera. Their voiceovers have a mysterious voice filter applied at all times. They check into maker spaces using a very generic name (and most people in shared creator spaces don't care about the beauty community anyway). 

Today, CafSpill hopes to get Beautubers and their fans buzzing about the shade thrown by BennyMUA at Raw Beauty Rey. They're editing clips of a video Benny uploaded yesterday, titled "my truth. how dare??!" Benny is wearing Gucci sweats and a nearly-bare face- though the microblading on his brows looks pretty recent- and he is ranting about how rude Raw Beauty Rey's "team" was when responding to his "generous" offer.

Some context, which the Internet is occasionally lousy at providing:

  1. As you will recall, Ben Solo's DM to Rey could have been phrased a little more politely.
  2. As you would expect if you spent more than five minutes around Rey, she does not have a "team," or a "squad," or a "fam." She has a best friend. She has tentative acquaintances. She has hiking buddies. Nobody is on Team Raw Beauty Rey except, well, Rey.
  3. Given 1 and 2, it seems obvious that the message Ben Solo received was written by Rey and only Rey. 
  4. Rey fights for what she believes is right, wherever she can.
  5. Ben fights to be taken seriously as a bisexual man in a largely female space. 
  6. They didn't mean to fight each other... those back-and-forth DMs just... sort of... happened, if you ask either of them.



CafSpill knows nothing of points 1-6. CafSpill knows CPMs. CafSpill knows brand deals. CafSpill knows that meanness moves merch.

CafSpill wants BennyMUA and RawBeautyRey to fight more.


	4. Milk Makeup Blur Stick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her friends think she should have been at least a tiny bit kinder, but Rey isn't sorry for how she wrote back to Benny. He might be an okay dude outside of that encounter. Who knows? 
> 
> He certainly seems funny in a sarcastic way from the footage she hasn't been able to stop secretly watching. That's not the point, though! 
> 
> The point is she's tried to create a positive fan community and she's not going to let some guy in false eyelashes yuck her yum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously on CafSpill:  
> BennyMUA wanted to collab with Raw Beauty Rey, but he wrote her an unnecessarily harsh DM.  
> Benny did the classic Wounded YouTuber Rant video.  
> The mysterious CafSpill reported on their budding feud.

Rey has been making YouTube videos for two years, as a creative outlet that eventually became a way to pay for tuition and rent without having to wait tables anymore. Her channel's name was suggested by her friend Rose. Rey does not consider herself to have any unique beauty as a physical person, but she strives to search for beauty in unexpected places, so she went with it.

 

How was she supposed to know that people all over the world would see her teenage rants as expert opinions? 

 

How could she have predicted that some famous dude with insured hair would write her an entitled message and then pout publicly when she failed to throw herself at his feet?

 

How is it that people have the time and emotional energy to care about her supposed "shade" when all she did is dash off a few terse sentences on mobile Twitter?

 

Her friends think she should have been at least a tiny bit kinder, but Rey isn't sorry for how she wrote back to Benny. He might be an okay dude outside of that encounter. Who knows? He certainly seems funny in a sarcastic way from the footage she hasn't been able to stop secretly watching. That's not the point, though! The point is she's tried to create a positive fan community and she's not going to let some guy in false eyelashes yuck her yum.

 

It's just... once she checked her email, Rey saw that the brand offer Benny mentioned was in her inbox too. She usually dismisses sponsorship offers right away. She's very careful about who she'll work with and how much freedom she has to be brutally honest during every step of a process. 

 

But it turns out that Wedge Antilles from Rouge Leader actually put together a pretty enticing package. He is willing to work with just Benjamin (she learns his full name from the forms Wedge drafted), or with just Rey. He'd allow either of them to suggest a second partner. What he really wants, though, for a reason he never quite explains, is for Benjamin and Rey to make a video together. She's sure there must be a hidden catch. She ignores the fact that half of her Instagram comments in the last 24 hours have @ed Benny or mentioned him for some reason, and she responds cautiously to Wedge's email. 

 

There has to be a catch.

 

And besides. Wedge would have to be an idiot to want to work with BOTH of them now that the world is buzzing with how much they apparently hate each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I desperately wanted to title this Blue Milk Makeup or Green Milk Makeup. I support all colors of strange Star Wars milk.


	5. Maison Margiela Replica By The Fireplace

Rey tightens her trademark triple buns - these Slipsilk scrunchies were outrageously expensive, but they sure do feel soft - and squares her shoulders. She is standing outside of the Rouge Leader offices and trying to prepare herself to meet Wedge. 

 

And Benjamin. 

He's here too. 

They're filming a collab. 

Because she said yes. 

To all of it. 

Why? _Let's not examine that too closely_ , she tells herself.

 

When she finally rings the bell, Wedge answers with a grin and an incredibly firm handshake. He ushers her past rows of desks, down a long hallway covered in dozens of glamorous portraits, and into the place where the three of them have agreed to meet: one of Rouge's sets. Tons of sweat-inducing bright lights, a bored audio guy in the back, one gorgeously decorated wall and three bare ones. The usual for this sort of thing. Or so she assumes. Rey usually just films at home.

 

Before she sees Benjamin, Rey smells him. That would normally make for a terrible first impression, but for one thing, she's already had one of those where he is concerned. And for another... he smells like the cozy campfire moment of her dreams. 

 

Benjamin crosses the room to introduce himself, and she can't decide where she'd rather drown: in his delicious scent or in his pretty eyes. 

 

Oh, no. This is bad. She cannot get a lady boner in front of all these people here in black T-shirts and baggy cargo pants. She is here to get subscribers, not to give out her phone number.

 

"Hey," says the charmingly deep-voiced man grasping her hand for a little too long. "I'm Ben."

 

So it's Ben. Not Benjamin. Not Benny. Okay, no big. That would be the easiest of the three to moan, but... _what the fuck? Cool it, Rey_.

 

"I'm Rey," she squeaks, taking her hand back from the handshake and then immediately unsure of what to do with it.

 

"I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... I would love a Ben who smells like a campfire...


	6. Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! Thanks for reading, y'all! I went back and re-formatted earlier chapters because I didn't like my half-hearted attempts at stage and video screen directions. Hopefully it flows more clearly now!!

CafSpill was always supposed to be about the money for the Hutt family. They had their fingers in so many other media-related pies already, so when beauty content, and especially drama about the beauty community itself, seemed like a hot item, making a gossip channel was a natural extension of the family media empire.

But Rotta, against all odds, has grown to care about some of the media personalities he was supposed to be mocking.

He likes Rose Tico for her hard, honest examinations of beauty standards and societal expectations.

He likes Kaydel Ko Connix's hair tutorials, even though he's nearly bald, because Kaydel has a soothing voice and she sometimes uses her famous mother as a hair model for "mature looks."

He even, Force help him, likes BennyMUA. 

Rotta started out hate-watching, as one does, but he grew to appreciate Benny's quirks, like his little lip-roll thing he does when he's nervous and his constant fixing of his dark wavy hair. One can only edit together a Benny-fluffing-his-mane complication for so long before finding it charming. And besides, Ben just does not give a fuck about being a man who has some traditionally feminine hobbies.

In Rotta's opinion, Ben started out a little too aggressive, Tweeting over voices of women who had things to say that he needed to hear. Maybe he was just trying to channel that Disaster Bi Energy and hoping to make his critics think he was invincible. But he's softened, and his audience has noticed. Rotta wonders if it has something to do with the woman sitting next to Ben in his latest video.

Ben and the woman are explaining their collaboration project with the parent company Rouge Leader. Rotta's only half listening - the rest of his focus is on scrolling through Instagram, gotta get that multi-screen-time in - but there's definitely something about a New Order Neutrals palette. He doesn't really pay a ton of attention until he sees Ben and the woman kiss.

Kiss?! Onscreen? Ben is openly bisexual but had never gone public with a relationship. And... is this the girl he was feuding with before?! Some real enemies to lovers ish?! Goodbye, Instagram. Time to follow the digital trail these lovebirds have left behind and create some pro- (or anti-) this-relationship content.

After watching all of Rey's videos, Rotta has decided he's definitely going with a pro-Benny-and-Rey slant to this next CafSpill update, which will be coming out two days early. 

This is a beautiful people emergency! 

Time to capitalize! 

Oh, and hopefully they're actually happy and stuff, too.

 


End file.
